A frenzied response

(Part of an ongoing account started on March 13, 2020 of how the spread of COVID-19 in our country and our government’s response has affected our lives.)

I swear that if Fedela keeps up her cleaning, I will find myself lining up for cleaning, instead of food, supplies.

Ever since we've been under enhanced community quarantine, our help has leveled up her cleaning. I’ve never complained about how she keeps the house clean because she's great at it. Fedela, on the other hand, shows what she thinks of MY cleaning whenever she comes back from a vacation. She turns the house upside down, re-cleaning everything and then some.

Fedela is the kind who gets restless if she is not doing anything. But before the quarantine, she would slow down after lunch and rest before she goes off again, doing what she thinks she needs to do. Now, after she’s done cleaning, she’s rearranging the cabinets, poking around the ceiling, wiping down the walls and including the light bulbs in their sockets…

She’s offered to do the cooking, which is not part of her duties. It is mine, especially now that we have to be mindful of how much we put on the table so that we can prolong supplies and limit food runs.

I’ve had to stop her from watering the plants twice a day. There’s a shortage of water supply in Manila so once at night is enough. I’ve long drawn up a schedule when we wash the car and do the laundry, and I’ve had to tell her twice to keep to it.

It’s funny. I see to it that my daughter has enough to do, while I have to keep our help in check because she is overdoing things.

I sit down with her and ask her what she understands of the situation. She has it right and understands why we are under quarantine. When I ask her why she seems bent on scrubbing the house bare, she laughs nervously and fumbles in her explanation. She is anxious. She does not know when things can go back to normal, if they go back to normal. So she keeps busy. She cleans.

I try as best as I can to tell her that I am perfectly all right with the cleaning, but to let up because we are in for the long haul. She needs to find a way to slow down because at the rate she is going, she will burn out. I tell her I need her to be all right.

I later overhear her cheerfully talking in the dialect to someone on the phone. She’s still sweeping in the garden and removing our top soil while doing it, but I let it be. At least, she’s laughing.

Just a while ago, she asked to leave for the village store to get personal provisions. She came back much more cheerful like I knew she would. Even if she is able to talk with family and relatives back in Cebu, I know she needs to see that the world out there continues to turn, even if COVID-19 keeps us to our homes and slows down our pace of life.

I think it’s time I limit the watching of the news to certain hours and to our room. 

DoH update: As of this writing, the Philippines has reported 380 confirmed corona virus cases, including 15 recoveries and 25 deaths.